Why Digital Media News

Planning for web design

As with any major project or journey you set out on, planning is very important, a lack of it could land you right in it! Web design is no different because failure to do so could be very costly. I have assembled a number of resources that I use to ensure I consistently get the right results.

1. Client Meeting – Understanding the company

It is very hard to produce great web design if you don’t understand the company you are designing for. At Why, we take time to get to know our customers to find out about their unique selling points, future goals, competition and personality. By creating a simple form we are able to get a better understanding of the company and where they want to be positioned. This stage of the planning is extremely important because without this knowledge we could position a company with a target audience of 50-60 to an audience of 16-20 which wouldn’t work out too well!

2. A good web design brief

Our client meetings not only allow us to understand the company but they give us the opportunity to gather the vital information needed to plan for the new web design. We discuss all their requirements and what we need to do in order to make them stand out from the crowd and get ahead in their market place. We look at visual and psychological factors when considering where the company wants to be positioned and take into consideration the needs of the company as well as our own suggestions before we create our web design brief. By agreeing a brief there becomes a clear structure to work to both in timescales and in costs so there is complete transparency on both sides.

3. Website Structure

Having a clear structure is very important, you wouldn’t build a house without architect plans and web design is no different. Confirming the website structure with the client is very important in understanding how the website will work and how pages are related. The flow and usability of a web design is extremely important, get it wrong and you have lost a customer forever! I use a free online tool called slickplan to create my sitemaps. This tool is very simple to use and allows me to email or export as a pdf for web design sign off by the client. Once this has been confirmed by the client, as a web design agency, we can then confirm costs and a timeline for final approval.

4. User Experience (UX)

User experience in web design is a hot topic at the moment because it can be the difference between keeping a customer and losing one. We take great care to ensure that the user experience on our websites always leads to a sale or point of contact. The most important thing to remember is that if something isn’t clear or is confusing in the web design, the customer will just leave so simplicity and ease of use is key to creating the perfect user experience.

5. Conclusion

We have had a great amount of success and happy customers by following the steps above when creating our web designs. As customers, you too can use these steps to provide us with the perfect web design brief and really take your business forward.

If you would like to speak to us about a web design project please contact us on 0844 474 0100.